


i can't take blame for two

by musicspeakstoo



Series: boy you was battle born [9]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 05:23:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10210508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/musicspeakstoo/pseuds/musicspeakstoo
Summary: Bruce sees just how much Jason has been influencing Tim, and he doesn't like it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hey hi hello I'm still here. It's been a tough semester and I haven't been writing all that much but this verse is pretty flexible so when I finally got the time to write again I decided to start here. This one is set sometime after the Contagion arc but in-verse it's before "it's the calm before another storm" and "with friends like ours anywhere is home." The move Tim does is the one Jason does in the flashback in Under the Red Hood. Title is from The World We Live In. Enjoy!

Bruce had known, of course, that Tim was spending time with Jason even before he showed up when Tim had the Clench, but it’s one thing to allow Tim to assist Jason in Newark on a case or occasionally look the other way when Red Hood helps on patrol and another to be disarming a group of robbers and to have Tim pull one of Jason’s signature moves to take down a man with a gun.

For the first time in a long time, Tim’s spiky hair and triumphant grin blur with dark curls and a teasing smile. It gets worse when Oracle chimes in, “I suppose you’ll want a copy of that sent to Hood,” because Tim’s grin shifts into a very familiar smirk and Bruce has to blink a few times to make sure he’s still not overlapping the memory of Jason with Tim standing in front of him.

“If you would be so kind, O,” Tim replies.

The rest of the night is relatively slow, the city is still feeling the effects of the same illness that nearly claimed Tim’s life, so Bruce feels justified in sending Tim home early, pretending he doesn’t see Tim’s disappointment. He stops a few muggings and chases off some kids spray painting swear words on the side of a building, but even he has to admit that he’s stalling. He makes his way to the Clocktower.

He ghosts in through an open window and Bruce knows she’s aware of his presence, and doesn’t announce himself, choosing instead to watch her work as he figures out how to phrase what he wants to know. He’s never asked Barbara what she thinks about Jason mentoring Tim, but he knows she’s fiercely protective of both of them, albeit for different reasons.

Now that he thinks about it, he’s not sure he’s ever asked her about her relationship with Tim. She and Dick were friends, partners, and briefly lovers, and she was Jason’s friend and partner as well, though Jason had never harbored any romantic feelings that Bruce is aware of. 

Tim is… Tim is somewhat of an enigma to Bruce. In some ways, he knows Tim as well as he knows himself but in others, the boy is unreadable. He knows Tim values his friendships with the other members of Young Justice, as well as with Spoiler and Connor Hawke. Tim’s proficiency with computers has caused him to bond with Barbara, Bruce knows this much. He’s also fairly certain Tim has trained and run missions with the Birds of Prey, which is as much an indicator of Barbara’s feelings as anything.

“I can tell you’re brooding,” she calls.

He steps out of the shadows and into the florescent glow made by the computer monitors. She looks away from her screens and studies him. He stares back, unmoved.

“I was wondering when you’d be lurking in my presence to ask me about Jason and Tim,” she says, going back to her monitors.

He shifts uncomfortably, not sure what to do with the amusement in her tone. 

“I didn’t think it would take you this long, though.”

He shifts again, “I was giving Robin the benefit of the doubt.”

She turns her attention back to him in a flash, “He didn’t do anything wrong, Bruce. You can’t shape the whole kid’s world around Jason and not expect him to get curious. Tim had met Jason all of twice when he came to ask me about him. He’s a detective after your own heart, I’m shocked you didn’t see this coming.”

He stands firm, “Jason is dangerous and I do not want Robin adapting to his way of doing things. I had hoped that by telling Tim what Jason did I could prevent Tim from falling under his influence.”

Barbara’s jaw tightens, “I know you heard this from Jason but I’m gonna reiterate it so hopefully it gets through that cowl of yours and into your thick skull: Jason isn’t dead. Jason isn’t dead and you can’t keep acting like he is because he is very much alive and happy to contradict your story. Which, by the way, is bullshit. And I know what you being pissed that they’re hanging out is really about. You’re scared. You’re scared because after Jason you decided to never let something like that happen again so you’ve kept Tim at a distance but he almost died recently and you’ve realized that you care about him a lot and that scares you shitless.”

He says nothing. She’s wrong and he’s not going to allow a response to her psychoanalysis. She stares at him, waiting. He’s had years of meeting much more difficult stares, however, and eventually she gives in, sighing and removing her glasses in order to pinch at the bridge of her nose.

“Why should I allow this to continue?” he asks, a little curious. He did come to her for this very reason, after all.

“Well, if you don’t, Tim’s going to do what you say because he’s obedient but he’ll be miserable and sad. Jason will continue to try and hang out with him and Tim being the incredibly loyal kid that he is will be horribly torn between the two of you and you can’t do that to him.”

“That’s not good enough,” he argues, “Tim is Robin, I can order him to do anything.”

She looks tired when she replies, “Okay, fine then. You want a good, compelling answer as to why you’re going to let Jason and Tim continue to be friends? Because you didn’t do a damned thing about Tim’s parents then and you’re not doing a damned thing about his father now. Letting Jason mentor him is the _least_ you can do for him. He barely knows how to be a kid, Bruce. Jason isn’t just teaching him fighting moves, he’s also making him watch movies and laugh and generally not act like he’s thirteen going on forty-five.”

There’s a ball of shame welling up in his chest which he pushes down immediately. Not here. He inclines his head and then folds himself back into the shadows and out the way he came in. Barbara’s aggravated sigh follows him. He heads in the direction of Wayne Tower, it’s a place where he can see the whole city and a place where he can think. He needs both tonight.

It’s only when he’s lurking on top of Wayne Tower that he allows the shame to come forward. He had thought, and still does, that distancing himself from any problems with his parents Tim may have had was the right call. Bruce doesn’t need another son and Tim doesn’t need another father. The quality of said father is negated by the fact of his existence, Bruce firmly believes this. After all, if he’s alive he has a chance to change his ways and despite what Jason and Barbara have repeatedly yelled at him, Jack Drake is trying. 

Dick and Jason had had no living parents (or so they thought, in Jason’s case) so there was no guilt to be had about stealing someone else’s son. Tim cannot make the same claim, even with his mother so freshly gone and his father only recently awoken. Tim’s father’s girlfriend appears to be more attentive so Bruce feels justified in his decision. Ultimately, there is someone is Tim’s life looking after him that has no connection to his vigilantism and that’s what matters.

Still, he cannot pretend that seeing Tim in the hospital bed did not flash him back to Jason, wrapped in bandages and machines, almost unrecognizable. He had felt similarly as well, a sense of gut wrenching helplessness usually paired with the memory of a gunshot: his parents, in the alley and Dick, injured and hanging on for dear life but falling, Bruce barely getting there in time.

He had tried desperately to prevent himself from feeling like that again but watching Tim train, a boy with no natural athletic ability, just a desperate need to help others and a determination that rivaled Bruce’s own, he had felt the first stirrings of fondness, though he had suppressed them. Clark would chide him gently and tell him to just admit that he has a large role in Tim’s life and allow himself to feel for the boy. What Clark doesn’t understand is that Bruce is aware of the enormity of his presence in Tim’s life, but it can only benefit the both of them for it to be strictly professional.

He shakes off these thoughts and heads for a safe house at the edge of Crime Alley. He’s not sure when Jason arrived in the city, he wasn’t here when Bruce started patrol, but he doesn’t care. A small, petty part of him wants break into Jason’s security, exploit the holes in it, but Bruce already suspects what he has to say will be incendiary and he would prefer to get in and out as quickly as possible. Instead, he knocks on the window of Jason’s safehouse and waits while Jason recovers from his shock long enough to disable security and Bruce climbs into his living room. He doesn’t bother to look around at the signature touches that mark this as one of Jason’s safehouses, he’s wallowed enough for one night and he has another stop before returning to the Cave.

Jason opens his mouth, but Bruce holds up his hand and says all he came to say, “I will allow you to continue mentoring Tim for the time being, but I do not want you being an unnecessary distraction. Robin has enough to do without you distracting him from his duties. If that occurs, I will not allow the relationship to continue. I will also terminate the relationship if I deem that it is causing him more harm than good. Do **not** test me on this unless you would rather see who Tim would pick: you or me.”

He slides out the window as quickly as he’d arrived. He doesn’t like be abrasive with Jason, nor does he enjoy twisting Barbara’s observation into a threat but Tim is younger in certain ways than Dick or Jason was at his age and he has an overwhelming desire to be liked by his peers in their community that baffles Bruce. Dick had had something similar, but Bruce had always been sure that it would not detract from his ability to do his job. Regardless, such a desire would allow Jason to gain further control over Tim and Bruce cannot count on Jason to not take advantage of that. Jason used to be his son, now he is a not-quite enemy and Bruce doesn’t trust him. No matter how much he wants to. There were things in Jason that Bruce did not do enough to quash and he will not allow Jason to pass them onto Tim.

Bruce makes his way to his penultimate stop of the night, the mansion next to Wayne Manor. He checks Jack Drake’s room first, which is dark but he can make out one sleeping figure. Dana must not be sleeping over yet and the petty part of Bruce resurfaces, wondering if Jack will tell Tim when that happens or if Tim will simply run into her in the hallway one morning while getting ready for school. The housekeeper is next and her room is also dark. Finally, he perches himself outside of Tim’s window. There’s a light on and he can see Tim at his desk, slumped over and drooling slightly on top of a textbook.

Bruce finds that he cannot resist the urge, gives in to a voice that tells him that Tim’s neck is going to hurt in the morning if he stays like that. As he climbs in through yet another window, he lies to himself and says that he is only doing this because Tim will be less effective on patrol with a stiff neck. Tim barely stirs when Bruce lifts him from his desk and places him on the bed. He chalks it up to Tim still being in recovery, the boy is usually up like a shot whenever touched during sleep. He had already changed into pajamas so all Bruce needs to do is shut the light and pull the covers over Tim. If he stops to smooth the boy’s hair from his face in what some would call a paternal gesture, well. Everyone has their moments of weakness.

He’s back in the Cave a few minutes later, watching three video feeds on the monitor. He can see Dick, munching on pizza and taking inventory of his first aid kit. The second feed is Jason, back in his Newark apartment, pacing as he leaves Bruce an angry voicemail. Staring at the third one, the one containing Tim’s sleeping form, he knows he’ll delete it. Whatever else he may tell himself and others, Bruce really is just trying to protect them. All of them.

**Author's Note:**

> the working title for this fic was "bruce has feelings, oh no"


End file.
